Twitter celebs balk at paying Elon Musk for blue check mark

One of Musk's first product moves after taking over Twitter was to launch a service granting blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 a month. [Shutterstock]

William Shatner, Monica Lewinsky and other prolific Twitter commentators - some household names, others little-known journalists - could soon be losing the blue check marks that helped verify their identity on the social media platform.

They could get the marks back by paying up to $11 a month. But some longtime users, including 92-year-old Star Trek legend Shatner, have balked at buying the premium service championed by Twitter's billionaire owner and chief executive Elon Musk.